• Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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    1 month ago

    Not even big instances, but big platforms I would say. Like, if you’re lucky someone might have heard about Mastodon, but that’s pretty much it.

    • FundMECFS
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      1 month ago

      “Ah yes the Dinosaur mato thing? Failed twitter alternative right?”

      (actual quote from a convo I’ve had)

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    I’ve never felt like a bigger idiot than when I try to explain the fediverse to normal people.

    • Rose@slrpnk.net
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      1 month ago

      I find it easier if the other person is a podcast listener.

      “You know how podcast ads usually say ‘listen to it in Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts?’ It’s a bit like that.”

      If not, I have to say something weak or complicated like “it’s a bit like email, dunno how to explain this if you have never thought about how email works, though”.

      • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        That’s a really good analogy.

        The email one works too once they realize they’ve never actually thought about what an email is. Like:

        “If I send you an email from gmail, you can open it in outlook, right?” “Yeah”

        “That’s because an email is just a file that both gmail and outlook can use” “makes sense”

        “Can I see your Twitter post on Reddit?” “No of course not”

        “But i can see Lemmy (Reddit) posts on Mastodon (Twitter). And these apps aren’t owned by huge companies. Normal people run each instance, and the software is free for anyone to use or host.”

      • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        I usually start with email, but I wonder if podcasts would be smarter. when I read what you said, my first thought was"but podcasts require you to upload to every instance that you want to be seen on" and then I realized that for the people that are just trying to get content this doesn’t matter. That’s actually genius.

    • wdx@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      Hey… so you know about Email, right?

      How you’re with Gmail and I with… say Proton. And we can still send Emails to each other? …

      Is my go to approach

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      I always start with, ok, so you know the internet is basically a series of tubes right? Once we are on the same page about that, I start talking about ipv4 and ipv6 including a mention of dual stack supporting instances.

  • Scott M. Stolz@loves.tech
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    1 month ago

    For those on traditional social media, I just say “What if Facebook and Twitter and YouTube could all talk to each other? People on Facebook could follow people on Twitter and people on Twitter can follow people on Facebook.” Then they usually reply “that would be neat” and then I tell them “yeah, that’s what we are building over here in the fediverse.”

    It usually is easier to give them an analogy related to something they are familiar with.

    • Nuxleio@lemmy.ml
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      30 days ago

      Ironically as a fediverse user I had a visceral reaction to reading that. That sounds like absolute nightmare fuel to me…

      • Scott M. Stolz@loves.tech
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        30 days ago

        True. But when talking to someone who lives on traditional social media, it is an explanation they would understand. Sometimes you have to meet people where they are, not where you want them to be.

    • colourlessidea@sopuli.xyz
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      30 days ago

      I actually have separate accounts on the different fediverse products - for me it’s the decentralization of instances that’s the most appealing.

    • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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      1 month ago

      I know she is, but its kind of creepy.

      It’s no longer as humorous as she was at first withe them whole shit j. The world and the content just makes me worry it’s something else that we Rob ok can’t control.

      Edit : ok that happened a second time this morning why the fuck am I dosing off suddenly and not realizing I didn’t check before I hit save?

        • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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          1 month ago

          I know. It happened a lot a long time ago when I struggled with sleeping problems and some medicine that didn’t help me actually sleep, but I have no idea what triggered it yesterday. I’m fine today.

          Still makes me chuckle though.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.eeBanned
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    1 month ago

    [off topic?] When William Gibson was researching ‘Neuromancer’ he spent a lot of time hanging out with hackers. They’d tell stories and he’d catch about a quarter of what they were talking about.

    When it came to write the book he decided that he’d make the book like that, the reader would have to push though a lot of things that didn’t make sense until they acquired more information.

    • IdleSheep
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      1 month ago

      Best way I can describe misskey as a user of it is that it’s like mastodon but if they implemented every feature request possible. I mean it literally has a toggle to convert your text into cat speak for no other reason other than the dev felt like it. It even has its own markdown language to give your text crazy effects because who wouldn’t want an emoji amplified 4 times that spins and changes color?

      It uses activitypub as well so it’s entirely interoperable with mastodon instances (although some functions like quote posts or the custom markdown language aren’t formatted as nicely when viewed from a mastodon instance)

      • hazel
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        30 days ago

        toggle to convert your text into cat speak

        SOLD!

        • IdleSheep
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          29 days ago

          If you want to enable the setting, it’s under

          Settings > Profile > Advanced Settings > Mark this account as a cat

          (wording/location may vary if you’re using a misskey fork but it should be under the profile settings somewhere)

          This will give your icon cat ears in public timelines and any text you write will be converted to catspeak. Works better in Japanese, which is the language it was designed for, but in English words like “now” get converted to “meow” for example.

  • xorollo@leminal.space
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    1 month ago

    Story of my life. I’m so annoyed when the response is to try to get me to shut up my flattering my intelligence. “Wow you use big words, anywayyyy”. Id rather you tell me you just don’t care. Then I can stop wasting my time. It took me a long time to realize what was going on, lmao.